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<div class="title">The mystery of the blend</div>
<div class="subtitle">The blender file-format explained</div>
<div class="contact">
<label>Author</label> Jeroen Bakker<br>
<label>Email</label> <a href="mailto:j.bakker@atmind.nl">j.bakker@atmind.nl</a><br>
<label>Website</label> <a href="http://www.atmind.nl/blender/">http://www.atmind.nl/blender</a><br>
<label>Version</label> 06-10-2010<br>
</div>

<a name="introduction" href="#introduction" ><h2>Introduction</h2></a>
</a>

<p>In this article I will describe the
 blend-file-format with a request to tool-makers to support blend-file. 
   
</p>
<p>First I'll describe how Blender works with blend-files. You'll notice
 why the blend-file-format is not that well documented, as from 
Blender's perspective this is not needed.
We look at the global file-structure of a blend-file (the file-header 
and file-blocks).
After this is explained, we go deeper to the core of the blend-file, the
 DNA-structures. They hold the blue-prints of the blend-file and the key
 asset of understanding blend-files.
When that's done we can use these DNA-structures to read information 
from elsewhere in the blend-file.

</p>
<p>
In this article we'll be using the default blend-file from Blender 2.54,
 with the goal to read the output resolution from the Scene. 
The article is written to be programming language independent and I've 
setup a web-site for support.
</p>

<a name="loading-and-saving-in-blender" href="#loading-and-saving-in-blender">
<h2>Loading and saving in Blender</h2>
</a>

<p>
Loading and saving in Blender is very fast and Blender is known to 
have excellent downward and upward compatibility. Ton Roosendaal 
demonstrated that in December 2008 by loading a 1.0 blend-file using 
Blender 2.48a [ref: <a href="http://www.blendernation.com/2008/12/01/blender-dna-rna-and-backward-compatibility/">http://www.blendernation.com/2008/12/01/blender-dna-rna-and-backward-compatibility/</a>].
</p>

<p>
Saving complex scenes in Blender is done within seconds. Blender 
achieves this by saving data in memory to disk without any 
transformations or translations. Blender only adds file-block-headers to
 this data. A file-block-header contains clues on how to interpret the 
data. After the data, all internally Blender structures are stored. 
These structures will act as blue-prints when Blender loads the file. 
Blend-files can be different when stored on different hardware platforms
 or Blender releases. There is no effort taken to make blend-files 
binary the same. Blender creates the blend-files in this manner since 
release 1.0. Backward and upwards compatibility is not implemented when 
saving the file, this is done during loading.
</p>

<p>
When Blender loads a blend-file, the DNA-structures are read first. 
Blender creates a catalog of these DNA-structures. Blender uses this 
catalog together with the data in the file, the internal Blender 
structures of the Blender release you're using and a lot of 
transformation and translation logic to implement the backward and 
upward compatibility. In the source code of blender there is actually 
logic which can transform and translate every structure used by a 
Blender release to the one of the release you're using [ref: <a href="http://download.blender.org/source/blender-2.48a.tar.gz">http://download.blender.org/source/blender-2.48a.tar.gz</a>
 <a href="https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/tags/blender-2.48-release/source/blender/blenloader/intern/readfile.c">blender/blenloader/intern/readfile.c</a> lines 
4946-7960]. The more difference between releases the more logic is 
executed. 
</p>

<p>
The blend-file-format is not well documented, as it does not differ from
 internally used structures and the file can really explain itself.
</p>

<a name="global-file-structure" href="#global-file-structure">
<h2>Global file-structure</h2>
</a>

<p>
This section explains how the global file-structure can be read.
</p>

<ul>
<li>A blend-file always start with the <b>file-header</b></li>
<li>After the file-header, follows a list of <b>file-blocks</b> (the default blend file of Blender 2.48 contains more than 400 of these file-blocks).</li>
<li>Each file-block has a <b>file-block header</b> and <b>file-block data</b></li>
<li>At the end of the blend-file there is a section called "<a href="#structure-DNA" style="font-weight:bold">Structure DNA</a>", which lists all the internal structures of the Blender release the file was created in</li>
<li>The blend-file ends with a file-block called 'ENDB'</li>
</ul>

<!-- file scheme -->
<div class="box-solid" style="width:20%; margin-left:35%; font-size:0.8em;">

    <p class="code"><b>File.blend</b></p>

    <div class="box"><p class="code">File-header</p></div>

    <div class="box-solid"><p class="code">File-block</p>
        <div class="box"><p class="code">Header</p></div>
        <div class="box"><p class="code">Data</p></div>
    </div>
    
    <div class="box" style="border-style:dashed"><p class="code">File-block</p></div>
    <div class="box" style="border-style:dashed"><p class="code">File-block</p></div>

    <div class="box-solid"><p class="code">File-block 'Structure DNA'</p>
        <div class="box"><p class="code">Header ('DNA1')</p></div>
        <div class="box-solid">
            <p class="code">Data ('SDNA')</p>
            <div class="box">
                <p class="code">Names ('NAME')</p>
            </div>
            <div class="box">
                <p class="code">Types ('TYPE')</p>
            </div>
            <div class="box">
                <p class="code">Lengths ('TLEN')</p>
            </div>
            <div class="box">
                <p class="code">Structures ('STRC')</p>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class="box-solid"><p class="code">File-Block 'ENDB'</p></div>

</div><!-- end of file scheme -->

<a name="file-header" href="#file-header">
<h3>File-Header</h3>
</a>

<p>
The first 12 bytes of every blend-file is the file-header. The 
file-header has information on Blender (version-number) and the PC the 
blend-file was saved on (pointer-size and endianness). This is required 
as all data inside the blend-file is ordered in that  way, because no  
translation or transformation  is done during saving. 
The next table describes the information in the file-header.
</p>

<table>
<caption>File-header</caption>
<thead>
<tr><th>reference</th>
    <th>structure</th>
    <th>type</th>
    <th>offset</th>
    <th>size</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>identifier</td>
    <td>char[7]</td>
    <td>File identifier (always 'BLENDER')</td>
    <td>0</td>
    <td>7</td></tr>
<tr><td>pointer-size</td>
    <td>char</td>
    <td>Size of a pointer; all pointers in the file are stored in this format. '_' means 4 bytes or 32 bit and '-' means 8 bytes or 64 bits.</td>
    <td>7</td>
    <td>1</td></tr>
<tr><td>endianness</td>
    <td>char</td>
    <td>Type of byte ordering used; 'v' means little endian and 'V' means big endian.</td>
    <td>8</td>
    <td>1</td></tr>
<tr><td>version-number</td>
    <td>char[3]</td>
    <td>Version of Blender the file was created in; '254' means version 2.54</td>
    <td>9</td>
    <td>3</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness">Endianness</a> addresses the way values are ordered in a sequence of bytes(see the <a href="#example-endianess">example</a> below):
</p>

<ul>
    <li>in a big endian ordering, the largest part of the value is placed on the first byte and 
    the lowest part of the value is placed on the last byte,</li>
    <li>in a little endian ordering, largest part of the value is placed on the last byte
    and the smallest part of the value is placed on the first byte.</li>
</ul>

<p> 
Nowadays, little-endian is the most commonly used.
</p>

<a name="example-endianess"></a>
<div class="box">
<p onclick="location.href='#example-endianess'" class="box-title">
Endianess Example
</p>
<p>
Writing the integer <code class="evidence">0x4A3B2C1Dh</code>, will be ordered:
<ul>
<li>in big endian as <code class="evidence">0x4Ah</code>, <code class="evidence">0x3Bh</code>, <code class="evidence">0x2Ch</code>, <code class="evidence">0x1Dh</code></li>
<li>in little endian as <code class="evidence">0x1Dh</code>, <code class="evidence">0x2Ch</code>, <code class="evidence">0x3Bh</code>, <code class="evidence">0x4Ah</code></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>

<p>
Blender supports little-endian and big-endian.<br>
This means that when the endianness 
is different between the blend-file and the PC your using, Blender changes it to the byte ordering 
of your PC.
</p>

<a name="example-file-header"></a>
<div class="box">
<p onclick="location.href='#example-file-header'" class="box-title">
File-header Example
</p>

<p>
This hex-dump describes a file-header created with <code>blender</code> <code>2.54.0</code> on <code>little-endian</code> hardware with a <code>32 bits</code> pointer length.
<code class="block">                               <span class="descr">pointer-size  version-number
                                     |             |</span>
0000 0000: [42 4C 45 4E 44 45 52]  [5F]  [76]  [32 35 34]        BLENDER_v254  <span class="descr">
                      |                   |
                  identifier          endianness</span></code>
</p>
</div>

<a name="file-blocks" href="#file-blocks"><h3>File-blocks</h3></a>

<p>
File-blocks contain a "<a href="#file-block-header">file-block header</a>" and "file-block data". 
</p>

<a name="file-block-header" href="#file-block-header"><h3>File-block headers</h3></a>

<p>
The file-block-header describes:
</p>

<ul>
<li>the type of information stored in the 
file-block</li>
<li>the total length of the data</li>
<li>the old memory 
pointer at the moment the data was written to disk</li>
<li>the number of items of this information</li>
</ul>

<p>
As we can see below, depending on the pointer-size stored in the file-header, a file-block-header 
can be 20 or 24 bytes long, hence it is always aligned at 4 bytes.
</p>

<table>
<caption>File-block-header</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>reference</th>
    <th>structure</th>
    <th>type</th>
    <th>offset</th>
    <th>size</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>code</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>File-block identifier</td>
    <td>0</td>
    <td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td>size</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>Total length of the data after the file-block-header</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td>old memory address</td>
    <td>void*</td>
    <td>Memory address the structure was located when written to disk</td>
    <td>8</td>
    <td>pointer-size (4/8)</td></tr>
<tr><td>SDNA index</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>Index of the SDNA structure</td>
    <td>8+pointer-size</td>
    <td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td>count</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>Number of structure located in this file-block</td>
    <td>12+pointer-size</td>
    <td>4</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>
The above table describes how a file-block-header is structured:
</p>

<ul>
<li><code>Code</code> describes different types of file-blocks. The code determines with what logic the data must be read. <br>  
These codes also allows fast finding of data like Library, Scenes, Object or Materials as they all have a specific code. </li>
<li><code>Size</code> contains the total length of data after the file-block-header. 
After the data a new file-block starts. The last file-block in the file 
has code 'ENDB'.</li>
<li><code>Old memory address</code> contains the memory address when the structure 
was last stored. When loading the file the structures can be placed on 
different memory addresses. Blender updates pointers to these structures
 to the new memory addresses.</li>
<li><code>SDNA index</code> contains the index in the DNA structures to be used when 
reading this file-block-data. <br>
More information about this subject will be explained in the <a href="#reading-scene-information">Reading scene information section</a>.</li>
<li><code>Count</code> tells how many elements of the specific SDNA structure can be found in the data.</li> 
</ul>

<a name="example-file-block-header"></a>
<div class="box">
<p onclick="location.href='#example-file-block-header'" class="box-title">
Example
</p>
<p>
This hex-dump describes a File-block (= <span class="header">File-block header</span> + <span class="data">File-block data</span>) created with <code>blender</code> <code>2.54</code> on <code>little-endian</code> hardware with a <code>32 bits</code> pointer length.<br>
<code class="block"><span class="descr">             file-block 
           identifier='SC'  data size=1404  old pointer   SDNA index=150
                 |              |              |              |</span>
0000 4420: <span class="header">[53 43 00 00]  [7C 05 00 00]  [68 34 FB 0B]  [96 00 00 00]</span>    SC.. `... ./.. .... 
0000 4430: <span class="header">[01 00 00 00]</span>  <span class="data">[xx xx xx xx    xx xx xx xx    xx xx xx xx</span>     .... xxxx xxxx xxxx<span class="descr">
                 |              |
              count=1      file-block data (next 1404 bytes)</span>
</code>
</p>

<ul>
<li>The code <code>'SC'+0x00h</code> identifies that it is a Scene. </li>
<li>Size of the data is 1404 bytes (0x0000057Ch = 0x7Ch + 0x05h * 256 = 124 + 1280)</li>
<li>The old pointer is 0x0BFB3468h</li>
<li>The SDNA index is 150 (0x00000096h = 6 + 9 * 16 = 6 + 144)</li>
<li>The section contains a single scene (count = 1).</li>
</ul>

<p>
Before we can interpret the data of this file-block we first have to read the DNA structures in the file. 
The section "<a href="#structure-DNA">Structure DNA</a>" will show how to do that. 
</p>
</div>

<a name="structure-DNA" href="#structure-DNA"><h2>Structure DNA</h2></a>

<a name="DNA1-file-block" href="#DNA1-file-block"><h3>The DNA1 file-block</h3></a>

<p>
Structure DNA is stored in a file-block with code 'DNA1'. It can be just before the 'ENDB' file-block.
</p>

<p>
The 'DNA1' file-block contains all internal structures of the Blender release the 
file was created in. <br>
These structure can be described as C-structures: they can hold fields, arrays and 
pointers to other structures, just like a normal C-structure.

<p>
<code class="block">struct SceneRenderLayer {
    struct SceneRenderLayer *next, *prev;
    char name[32];
    struct Material *mat_override;
    struct Group *light_override;
    unsigned int lay;
    unsigned int lay_zmask;
    int layflag;
    int pad;
    int passflag;
    int pass_xor;
};
</code>
</p>

<p>
For example,a blend-file created with Blender 2.54 the 'DNA1' file-block is 57796 bytes long and contains 398 structures.
</p>

<a name="DNA1-file-block-header" href="#DNA1-file-block-header"><h3>DNA1 file-block-header</h3></a>

<p>
The DNA1 file-block header follows the same rules of any other file-block, see the example below.
</p>

<a name="example-DNA1-file-block-header"></a>
<div class="box">
<p onclick="location.href='#example-DNA1-file-block-header'" class="box-title">
Example
</p>
<p>
This hex-dump describes the file-block 'DNA1' header created with <code>blender</code> <code>2.54.0</code> on <code>little-endian</code> hardware with a <code>32 bits</code> pointer length.<br>
<code class="block"><span class="descr">      (file-block 
       identifier='DNA1') data size=57796   old pointer   SDNA index=0
                  |              |              |              |</span>
0004 B060   <span class="header">[44 4E 41 31]  [C4 E1 00 00]  [C8 00 84 0B]  [00 00 00 00]</span>  DNA1............
0004 B070   <span class="header">[01 00 00 00]</span>  <span class="fade">[53 44 4E 41    4E 41 4D 45    CB 0B 00 00</span>   ....<span class="fade">SDNANAME....</span><span class="descr">
                  |              |
              count=1    'DNA1' file-block data (next 57796 bytes)</span>
</code>
</p>
</div>

<a name="DNA1-file-block-data" href="#DNA1-file-block-data"><h3>DNA1 file-block data</h3></a>
<p>
The next section describes how this information is ordered in the <b>data</b> of the 'DNA1' file-block.
</p>

<table>
<caption>Structure of the DNA file-block-data</caption>
<thead>
    <tr><th colspan="2">repeat condition</th>
    <th>name</th>
    <th>type</th>
    <th>length</th>
    <th>description</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>identifier</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>'SDNA'</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>name identifier</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>'NAME'</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>#names</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Number of names follows</td></tr>
<tr><td>for(#names)</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>name</td>
    <td>char[]</td>
    <td>?</td>
    <td>Zero terminating string of name, also contains pointer and simple array definitions (e.g. '*vertex[3]\0')</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>type identifier</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>'TYPE' this field is aligned at 4 bytes</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>#types</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Number of types follows</td></tr>
<tr><td>for(#types)</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>type</td>
    <td>char[]</td>
    <td>?</td>
    <td>Zero terminating string of type (e.g. 'int\0')</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>length identifier</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>'TLEN' this field is aligned at 4 bytes</td></tr>
<tr><td>for(#types)</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>length</td>
    <td>short</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td>Length in bytes of type (e.g. 4)</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>structure identifier</td>
    <td>char[4]</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>'STRC' this field is aligned at 4 bytes</td></tr>
<tr><td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>#structures</td>
    <td>integer</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Number of structures follows</td></tr>
<tr><td>for(#structures)</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>structure type</td>
    <td>short</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td>Index in types containing the name of the structure</td></tr>
<tr><td>..</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>#fields</td>
    <td>short</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td>Number of fields in this structure</td></tr>
<tr><td>..</td>
    <td>for(#field)</td>
    <td>field type</td>
    <td>short</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td>Index in type</td></tr>
<tr><td>for end</td>
    <td>for end</td>
    <td>field name</td>
    <td>short</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td>Index in name</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>
As you can see, the structures are stored in 4 arrays: names, types, 
lengths and structures. Every structure also contains an array of 
fields. A field is the combination of a type and a name. From this 
information a catalog of all structures can be constructed. 
The names are stored as how a C-developer defines them. This means that 
the name also defines pointers and arrays.
(When a name starts with '*' it is used as a pointer. when the name 
contains for example '[3]' it is used as a array of 3 long.)
In the types you'll find simple-types (like: 'integer', 'char', 
'float'), but also complex-types like 'Scene' and 'MetaBall'. 
'TLEN' part describes the length of the types. A 'char' is 1 byte, an 
'integer' is 4 bytes and a 'Scene' is 1376 bytes long.
</p>

<div class="box">
<p class="box-title">
Note
</p>
<p>
All identifiers, are arrays of 4 chars, hence they are all aligned at 4 bytes.
</p>
</div>

<a name="example-DNA1-file-block-data"></a>
<div class="box">
<p onclick="location.href='#example-DNA1-file-block-data'" class="box-title">
Example
</p>
<p>
Created with <code>blender</code> <code>2.54.0</code> on <code>little-endian</code> hardware with a <code>32 bits</code> pointer length.
</p>

<a name="DNA1-data-array-names" href="#DNA1-data-array-names"><h4>The names array</h4></a>
<p>
The first names are: *next, *prev, *data, *first, *last, x, y, xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, *pointer, group, val, val2, type, subtype, flag, name[32], ...
<code class="block"><span class="descr">    file-block-data identifier='SDNA'  array-id='NAME'     number of names=3019
                                |              |             |</span>
0004 B070    <span class="fade">01 00  00 00 [53 44  4E 41]</span><span class="data">[4E  41 4D 45] [CB 0B 00  00]</span>  <span class="fade">....SDNA</span>NAME....
0004 B080   <span class="data">[2A 6E  65 78  74 00][2A 70  72  65 76 00] [2A 64 61  74</span>   *next.*prev.*dat<span class="descr">
                      |                    |                   | 
                  '*next\0'            '*prev\0'            '*dat'</span><span class="fade">
                                  ....
                                  .... (3019 names)</span>
</code>
</p>

<div class="box">
<p class="box-title">
Note
</p>
<p>
While reading the DNA you'll will come across some strange 
names like '(*doit)()'. These are method pointers and Blender updates 
them to the correct methods.
</p>
</div>

<a name="DNA1-data-array-types" href="#DNA1-data-array-types"><h4>The types array</h4></a>
<p>
The first types are: char, uchar, short, ushort, int, long, ulong, float, double, void, Link, LinkData, ListBase, vec2s, vec2f, ...
<code class="block"><span class="descr">                                                      array-id='TYPE'
                                                            |</span>
0005 2440    <span class="fade">6F 6C 64 5B   34 5D 5B 34 5D 00 00 00</span>   [54 59 50  45]  <span class="fade">old[4][4]...</span>TYPE
0005 2450   [C9 01 00 00] [63 68 61 72 00]  [75 63 68 61 72 00][73   ....char.uchar.s<span class="descr">
                  |                |                 |           |
       number of types=457     'char\0'          'uchar\0'      's'</span><span class="fade">
                                  ....
                                  .... (457 types)</span>
</code>
</p>

<a name="DNA1-data-array-lengths" href="#DNA1-data-array-lengths"><h4>The lengths array</h4></a>
<p>
<code class="block"><span class="descr">                                                 char    uchar    ushort   short
                                 array-id       length   length   length   length
                                   'TLEN'          1        1        2        2</span>
0005 3AA0    <span class="fade">45 00    00 00</span>   [54 4C    45 4E]  [01 00]  [01 00]  [02 00]  [02 00]  <span class="fade">E...</span>TLEN........
                                  <span class="fade">....</span>
0005 3AC0   [08 00]  [04 00]  [08 00]  [10 00]  [10 00]  [14 00]  [4C 00]  [34 00]  ............L.4.<span class="descr">
               8        4        8       
           ListBase   vec2s    vec2f    ... etc
           length     len      length   </span><span class="fade">
                                  ....
                                  .... (457 lengths, same as number of types)</span>
</code>
</p>

<a name="DNA1-data-array-structures" href="#DNA1-data-array-structures"><h4>The structures array</h4></a>
<p>
<code class="block"><span class="descr">                                                                 array-id='STRC'
                                                                        |</span>
0005 3E30    <span class="fade">40 00 38 00   60 00   00 00     00 00     00 00</span>    [53 54     52 43]  <span class="fade">@.8.`.......</span>STRC
0005 3E40   [8E 01 00 00] [0A 00] [02 00]   [0A 00]   [00 00]   [0A 00]   [01 00]  ................<span class="descr">
                 398         10      2         10        0         10        0  
              number of    index    fields    index     index     index     index
             structures   in <a href="#DNA1-data-array-types">types</a>           in <a href="#DNA1-data-array-types">types</a>  in <a href="#DNA1-data-array-names">names</a>  in <a href="#DNA1-data-array-types">types</a>   in <a href="#DNA1-data-array-names">names</a></span><span class="fade">
                          '                  '----------------'  '-----------------'                                    '
                          '                      field 0                field 1    '
                          '--------------------------------------------------------'
                                             structure 0
                                  ....
                                  .... (398 structures, each one describeing own type, and type/name for each field)</span>
</code>
</p>
</div>

<p>
The DNA structures inside a Blender 2.48 blend-file can be found at <a href="http://www.atmind.nl/blender/blender-sdna.html">http://www.atmind.nl/blender/blender-sdna.html</a>.

If we understand the DNA part of the file it is now possible to read 
information from other parts file-blocks. The next section will tell us 
how.
</p>

<a name="reading-scene-information" href="#reading-scene-information"><h2>Reading scene information</h2></a>

<p>
Let us look at <a href="#example-file-block-header">the file-block header we have seen earlier</a>:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>the file-block identifier is <code>'SC'+0x00h</code></li>
<li>the SDNA index is 150</li>
<li>the file-block size is 1404 bytes</li>
</ul>
<p>
Now note that:
<ul>
<li>the structure at index 150 in the DNA is a structure of type 'Scene' (counting from 0).</li>
<li>the associated type ('Scene') in the DNA has the length of 1404 bytes.</li>
</ul>
</p>

<p> 
We can map the Scene structure on the data of the file-blocks. 
But before we can do that, we have to flatten the Scene-structure.

<code class="block">struct Scene {
    ID id;              <span class="descr">// 52 bytes long (ID is different a structure)</span>
    AnimData *adt;      <span class="descr">// 4 bytes long (pointer to an AnimData structure)</span>
    Object *camera;     <span class="descr">// 4 bytes long (pointer to an Object structure)</span>
    World *world;       <span class="descr">// 4 bytes long (pointer to an Object structure)</span>
    ...
    float cursor[3];    <span class="descr">// 12 bytes long (array of 3 floats)</span>
    ...
};
</code>

The first field in the Scene-structure is of type 'ID' with the name 'id'.
Inside the list of DNA structures there is a structure defined for type 'ID' (structure index 17).
 
<code class="block">struct ID {
    void *next, *prev;
    struct ID *newid;
    struct Library *lib;
    char name[24];
    short us;
    short flag;
    int icon_id;
    IDProperty *properties;
};
</code>

The first field in this structure has type 'void' and name '*next'. <br>
Looking in the structure list there is no structure defined for type 'void': it is a simple type and therefore the data should be read. 
The name '*next' describes a pointer.
As we see, the first 4 bytes of the data can be mapped to 'id.next'.
</p>

<p>
Using this method we'll map a structure to its data. If we want to 
read a specific field we know at which offset in the data it is located 
and how much space it takes.<br>
The next table shows the output of this flattening process for some 
parts of the Scene-structure. Not all rows are described in the table as
 there is a lot of information in a Scene-structure.
</p>

<table>
<caption>Flattened SDNA structure 150: Scene</caption>
<thead>
<tr><th>reference</th>
    <th>structure</th>
    <th>type</th><th>name</th>
    <th>offset</th><th>size</th>
    <th>description</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>id.next</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>void</td><td>*next</td>
    <td>0</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Refers to the next scene</td></tr>
<tr><td>id.prev</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>void</td><td>*prev</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Refers to the previous scene</td></tr>
<tr><td>id.newid</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>ID</td><td>*newid</td>
    <td>8</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>id.lib</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>Library</td><td>*lib</td>
    <td>12</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>id.name</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>char</td><td>name[24]</td>
    <td>16</td>
    <td>24</td>
    <td>'SC'+the name of the scene as displayed in Blender</td></tr>
<tr><td>id.us</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>short</td><td>us</td>
    <td>40</td>
    <td>2</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>id.flag</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>short</td><td>flag</td><td>42</td><td>2</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>id.icon_id</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>int</td><td>icon_id</td><td>44</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>id.properties</td><td><a href="#struct:ID">ID</a></td>
    <td>IDProperty</td><td>*properties</td>
    <td>48</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>adt</td><td>Scene</td><td>AnimData</td>
    <td>*adt</td>
    <td>52</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>camera</td><td>Scene</td>
    <td>Object</td>
    <td>*camera</td>
    <td>56</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Pointer to the current camera</td></tr>
<tr><td>world</td><td>Scene</td>
    <td>World</td>
    <td>*world</td>
    <td>60</td>
    <td>4</td>
    <td>Pointer to the current world</td></tr>

<tr><td class="skip" colspan="7">Skipped rows</td></tr>

<tr><td>r.xsch</td><td><a href="#struct:RenderData">RenderData</a>
    </td><td>short</td><td>xsch</td><td>382</td><td>2</td>
    <td>X-resolution of the output when rendered at 100%</td></tr>
<tr><td>r.ysch</td><td><a href="#struct:RenderData">RenderData</a>
    </td><td>short</td><td>ysch</td><td>384</td><td>2</td>
    <td>Y-resolution of the output when rendered at 100%</td></tr>
<tr><td>r.xparts</td><td><a href="#struct:RenderData">RenderData</a>
    </td><td>short</td><td>xparts</td><td>386</td><td>2</td>
    <td>Number of x-part used by the renderer</td></tr>
<tr><td>r.yparts</td><td><a href="#struct:RenderData">RenderData</a>
    </td><td>short</td><td>yparts</td><td>388</td><td>2</td>
    <td>Number of x-part used by the renderer</td></tr>

<tr><td class="skip" colspan="7">Skipped rows</td></tr>

<tr><td>gpd</td><td>Scene</td><td>bGPdata</td><td>*gpd</td><td>1376</td><td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>physics_settings.gravity</td><td><a href="#struct:PhysicsSettings">PhysicsSettings</a>
    </td><td>float</td><td>gravity[3]</td><td>1380</td><td>12</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>physics_settings.flag</td><td><a href="#struct:PhysicsSettings">PhysicsSettings</a>
    </td><td>int</td><td>flag</td><td>1392</td><td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>physics_settings.quick_cache_step</td><td><a href="#struct:PhysicsSettings">PhysicsSettings</a>
    </td><td>int</td><td>quick_cache_step</td><td>1396</td><td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
<tr><td>physics_settings.rt</td><td><a href="#struct:PhysicsSettings">PhysicsSettings</a>
    </td><td>int</td><td>rt</td><td>1400</td><td>4</td>
    <td></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>
We can now read the X and Y resolution of the Scene:
<ul>
<li>the X-resolution is located on offset 382 of the file-block-data and must be read as a 
short.</li>
<li>the Y-resolution is located on offset 384 and is also a short</li>
</ul>
</p>

<div class="box">
<p class="box-title">
Note
</p>
<p>
An array of chars can mean 2 things. The field contains readable 
text or it contains an array of flags (not humanly readable).
</p>
</div>

<div class="box">
<p class="box-title">
Note
</p>
<p>
A file-block containing a list refers to the DNA structure and has a count larger
than 1. For example Vertexes and Faces are stored in this way.
</p>
</div>

</body>
</html>

